The popularity of the Internet, coupled with the increasing capabilities of mobile electronic devices, has provided consumers with the ability to enjoy multimedia content on the go. For example, live content (e.g., sports events) and video on demand (VOD) content (e.g., television shows and movies) can be streamed via the Internet to electronic devices (e.g., computers, mobile phones, or Internet-enabled televisions). To playback media streams, electronic devices typically execute a media player software application. Some operating systems for mobile phones and tablet computers have built-in media players.
Media streaming is typically a “passive” activity for a viewer. That is, viewers may not have the ability to interact with the media stream other than to perform basic start, pause, stop, fast forward, or rewind operations. To increase audience excitement or to collect audience data, some content providers have recently attempted to incorporate interactive content (e.g., content a user may interact with, including selectable objects or icons) into the process of viewing a media stream. One example of interactive content is a survey which is displayed at a client device and which asks a viewer whether he or she enjoyed a just-viewed advertisement. To add such interactivity to the media stream viewing experience, a media server may generally cause the interactive content to be retrieved and rendered by the client device. For example, the media server may instruct or direct the client device (e.g., a media player installed on an electronic device) to fetch the interactive content (e.g., an alternate media stream) from an interactive content domain (content source separate from the media server) for display before (e.g., pre-roll) or during display of a user requested/selected media stream by including flags or redirects/requests that direct the client device to the interactive content domain.
However, advertisement blocking software employed on the client device has the ability to block client-retrieved interactive content. For example, advertisement blocking software may block redirects and/or requests to internet domains on a blocked domain list, which generally includes interactive content domains. A media stream with blocked or missing interactive content may detract from an overall user experience (e.g., the interactive content being blocked is not actually advertising, but may instead be content the user was expecting to see, and the user may thus be left wondering whether there was a malfunction at the server or at his/her viewing device).